1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of handling a two dimensional code, a control method thereof, and a storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology (as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-280469) of restricting a copy of printed material by using a two dimensional code has heretofore been known. In this conventional technology, the following processing is performed.
(1) First, a password is encoded so that a two dimensional code is obtained, and printed material on which the obtained two dimensional code is printed is scanned by a scanner of an image forming apparatus.
(2) Next, if the two dimensional code is detected in image data obtained by the scanning, the two dimensional code is decoded so that the password is obtained.
(3) Thereafter, a user of the image forming apparatus is requested to input a password. At this time, the password inputted by the user through an operating section of the image forming apparatus is compared with the password obtained by decoding the two dimensional code, and only if both match each other, the image data obtained by the scanning are stored in a storage device of the image forming apparatus.
In this manner, the above-described conventional technology provides a system in which copying is restricted when image data is to be stored in the storage device of the image forming apparatus.
In the above-described conventional technology, the storing of a copy can be restricted when control is performed, as a job, in which printed material with a two dimensional code printed thereon is read and outputted. However, a copy cannot necessarily be prevented from being stored in the following case.
For example, suppose that there is an image forming apparatus which performs two control operations with different jobs: one being performed on the storing, in a storage device of the image forming apparatus, of image data obtained by reading printed material embedded with a two dimensional code; the other being performed on the outputting of the image data from the storage device of the image forming apparatus. In such an image forming apparatus, when the image data stored in the storage device are transmitted to an external device by file transfer or by fax, there is a problem that a copy can be made with use of printing means on the side of the external device.
Further, when browsing image data of an image forming apparatus using a display function of the image forming apparatus, there is no problem; however, when browsing image data of the image forming apparatus using an external device, there is a problem where a copy can be made using screenshot means and printing means of the external device.